Windows beats Linux market share, dog bites man

A more interesting study would be to measure the relative number of full OS downloads between windows and linux.

Behold! Linux wins by many orders of magnitude! Stop the presses!

Chris --

You may be joking, but the point is a great one.

The value of statistics is not merely a matter of their accuracy, but their purpose.

Statistics gathered for the purpose of determining the market for pre-configured servers may be fine for that purpose, but brittle when stretched to answer other questions.

chris,

Will you count all of the 'warez' pirated versions of windows downloaded throughout the world?

Lets count based on legally downloaded and licensed OS's, then Linux is the winner.

Stop software piracy, use gnu/Linux!

6x -

WarezWindows is one of the few places that I indulge in conspiracy theories.

I can't shake the notion that OFAR (Our Friends at Redmond) secretly support the piracy of Windows because:

1. It helps to cement the notion that Windows is the gold standard and that everything else is merely settling.

2. It spreads dependence on Windows.

and

3. As more nations want to step up into the international community, they will have no choice but to step up to the IP plate as well -- meaning a windfall for Microsoft.

I know it's dumb. I know it earns me a place in the tin-foil cap club.

I just can't shake the suspicion.

Now I know it's more than just fermented coffee! Despite my low tolerance for ethanol, I over microwaved it and lost a good portion of the coffee by boiling it off. Given the lower boiling temperature, the alcohol content would have been preferentially lowered. Maybe it was a toxin left by an infectious agent ...

dino - stop making so much sense, I cannot take it ... Damn I am going to make a fresh cup, maybe I am just tired.

dino,

That's not a conspiracy theory, Bill Gates has admitted he likes people to pirate Windows for the very reasons you mention. It was in an interview done with Sir Bill and Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway) back in 1998:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-212942.html

Check out Bill's reasoning about Pirating versions of Windows:

"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

So dino old boy, you and Bill Gates are in perfect agreement! How does that make you feel?

6x -

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

number6x,

Linux has no warez market, so counting that for Windows would be unfair bias towards Microsoft. However, Linux has a different issue: multi-installs per download, and unofficial duplication that cannot be tracked. Thus, to keep the playing field perfectly level, we will only consider _legitimate_ downloads from reputable sites--where the numbers can be independently verified.

Initial results of this study indicate that Windows has no user base whatsoever.

Chris

"A more interesting study would be to measure the relative number of full OS downloads between windows and linux."

How the stats are spun aside, this might be just as inaccurate as many Linux users download different Distros for testing and MS sells their OS from retail market. What we really want to know is how many people run which system, and I see no accurate way to track that. From what I have observed in the past couple of years, I strongly suspect that Linux installs and desktop usage is 'seriously' under reported. There are many new users asking Linux questions in the forums and on IRC, which indicates that I may be right, but again this is just my take on it.